Updated Thursday, April 03, 2008

Copper: Coaching would benefit churches

By Steve DeVane

BR Managing Editor

LAKE HICKORY - Many churches would benefit from a "coaching culture," says a leading N.C. Baptist coach and coach trainer.

Bill Copper, senior coach for Lake Hickory Learning Communities and director of Hollifield Leadership Center, presented a one-day seminar on how to establish such a culture March 12 at Hollifield.

Copper said coaching helps people be the best they can be. Christian coaches believe that coaching draws out the power within God's people.

The challenge for coaches is to help people in the congregation see the benefits of coaching. Modern culture rewards the consultant who comes with the answers in his briefcase. Coaching assumes the answers are within the congregation and works to bring them forth.

With the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence (SPE) project just concluded, North Carolina Baptists took a big step toward instituting a coaching culture. Participants in the SPE process consistently said the coaching element of the process was most beneficial.

Coaching as an offering of the Baptist State Convention will not continue to be emphasized, in part because the Lilly Endowment grant that funded the innovation the past three years has expired.

Copper discussed the mental road map model of coaching, developed by Gary Collins, author of Christian Coaching. The model emphasizes that Jesus should be at the center of life.

"As Christian coaches we assume it's a three-way conversation between us, the person being coached and the Holy Spirit," Copper said.

Collins' models places issues, awareness, vision, strategy, action and obstacles around Jesus. Coaching can start at any area, go from there to another area and end in another.

Coaching is not about shoring up weaknesses, but instead focuses on building on strengths, Copper said. Coaching assumes wholeness and health, he said.

Coaching about the vision aspect can involve coaching about where a person wants to go in life, giving a mental picture of the preferred future.

Strategy coaching helps the person being coached set specific, measurable goals that align with the vision. Vague goals are less likely to be accomplished.

Coaching about action lets the person decide what to do to accomplish the goals.

Copper said pastors and church leaders who want to establish a coaching culture in their congregations should first focus on people with influence. A key step is to get those influencers involved in coaching.

This would involve sharing with them the benefits of coaching and one way would be to coach the leaders or enlist other coaches to help, Copper said.

Once the people with influence have experienced coaching, the pastor can start teaching them coaching principles or invite them to attend coach-training events.

The influencers could then use those skills in their relationships with others in the congregation. Coaching principles can be used in small-group settings, in staff relationships, in preaching and teaching and in other situations.

Once the change begins to be noticed, the church leaders could point out the impact and define the shift.

"People will notice the difference," Copper said. "Define it - 'Here's why it's different.'"

Copper said a coaching culture will spread ownership of decisions to church members. Coaching empowers people instead of controlling them, he said.

Congregations that have a coaching emphasis will be more visionary and future-focused, according to Copper. The churches will have more partnership and interaction between the members, he said.

Copper said coaching welcomes accountability. Coaches have no agenda and intentionally focus on listening to congregations to help them achieve clarity.

Coaches provide encouragement. Coaching is successful because coaches listen and encourage congregations to do what they need to do.

"They don't get that anywhere else," he said.

Some congregations might discover they need to concentrate more on being rather than doing, Copper said.

"Sometimes, the action we need to take is to get some things off our plate," he said.

Churches tend to focus on their less desirable traits, which at best could be moved to a break-even point, Copper said.

"It's better to focus on getting the good to soar," he said. "Be patient, but be intentional about looking for the next steps.

"Don't just let it happen. Make it happen."